Neighbors Help Rancho Cordova Family After Home Burns
RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) - Flames ripped through a Rancho Cordova mobile home just two weeks before Christmas.
The Carrera family is left with nearly nothing, but one woman they had never met is determined to change that. Tonight we have the story of strangers coming together.
"It was so sad to see just all, everything burned. It didn't seem like my house," said Nancy Carrera, whose home went up in flames.
Carrera came rushing home to see flames ripping through her Rancho Cordova mobile home.
"It's all destroyed inside," she said.
Carrera's husband ran out with holiday tamales cooking on the stove to pick up their children. Somehow flames broke out.
"Not having a place for the girls to stay, we are sleeping in the living room. We never thought we would be going through this situation having no place that is our own place," said Carrera.
And while they don't have a place quite yet, "We were sitting here thinking, that could have been us," said Janice Davis, a neighbor.
Davis knew she had to step in and help. She's a neighbor in the park who had never met Nancy.
"I just started reaching out, and I think we were kind of overwhelmed with the response we received," said Davis.
Davis' first focus was to get the family clothes.
"We've taken, I want to say, seven trunk loads of clothes down," she said.
She's proving strangers can pay it forward.
The Carrera's did not have insurance.
"When something like this happens, it's a reminder for all of us [of] the importance of insurance," said Nancy Kincaid with the State Department of Insurance.
Kincaid says the holidays are often a time people find themselves recovering from fires, with heavy cooking and heating. She says a few-hundred-dollar policy could be all the difference.
"It's so much more to recovery than typically the cost of a policy," said Kincaid.
Without a policy, Davis will next work on raising money for the Carreras in this season of giving.
"It's the right thing to do," said Davis.
"I'm so thankful," said Carrera.
Click here to learn about how you an help the Carreras.
